JAMES SLACK: If Unions and Labour MPs really represent the working class they must fight for British jobs

After the bitter protest comes the messy compromise. British workers - should they accept the deal - are to be offered 101 of 198 jobs available at the Lindsey oil plant in Lincolnshire.

It is at least an improvement on the last offer made by the refinery's owner, Total. Last night, they were offering up just 60 jobs, or little over a quarter of those available.

Deal: Strikers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire have rejected a deal that would see only 21% of jobs going to British workers

The deal is also much better than what is on offer in the economy generally - by and large, British workers can expect to receive little or no benefit from any job creation which takes place. Just look at the astonishing figures.

From 2001 to 2008, the numbers in employment in the UK rose by 1.342million. Yet the number of UK-born workers fell by 62,000.

Even if the number of naturalised UK citizens is added to UK-born workers, Britons have still taken only 253,000 of the new jobs. The remainder - 1.089million - have gone to foreigners.

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But, should the striking workers in Lincolnshire be prepared to thank the heavens for small mercies, and accept today's offer, those union leaders and Labour MPs who have been campaigning on their behalf must not be allowed to retreat back into their shells.

For there is a far greater issue at stake here, and one that has been lost in the arcane detail of precisely how, initially, every new job going at the refinery was given exclusively to Italian and Portuguese workers.

That is the urgent need for the Government to slash the number of work permits it has been handing out like confetti, even as the country slid into a deep recession.

Yes, the Lindsey dispute centred on EU workers. But the anger which erupted across the country represented a general feeling that the Government is prepared to sit idly by while foreign workers take the precious few well-paid jobs currently available.

The public is frustrated not by the implementation of the 1996 EU Posted Workers Directive, which leaves foreign contractors free to employ their own direct labour force from their own countries, but by Ministerial incompetence on a grand scale.

Of course, Ministers wanted the strikes to be turned into a complex dispute about EU rules. They even engineered a dispute on the subject between Lord Mandelson and Alan Johnson (the Health Secretary said the EU rules needed amending, the Business Secretary disagreed) in order to focus minds on Europe.

But that is because they know they are on safe ground with the EU - nobody really expects us to rip-up free movement directives - and because they are desperate to detract attention from the work permit issue.

Little wonder, given that - in the year after Gordon Brown made his hollow promise of 'British jobs for British workers' - Government officials handed out an all-time record 151,000 permits.

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Unlike issues involving the EU (over which Labour effectively gave up the ghost, when opting not to place restrictions on Eastern European workers in 2004), Ministers really can do something about this. And very easily. But the suspicion remains that - despite the platitudes being offered by Gordon Brown - they do not want to.

They have created a country in which the workforce has become so demotivated, and is so lacking in basic skills, that there is no option in Ministerial minds but to keep handing out work permits in ever increasing numbers.

But, in a recession, that is nothing short of a betrayal. It is no longer an option to talk about training and creating opportunities. Labour must slash the number of work permits and force businesses to go British.

They will not do this without a fight. The entire machinery of Government is set up to keep merrily rubber-stamping work permits, while the unemployment queue grows.

How else do we explain last year's 151,000 total? Of course, non-EU migrants bring valuable skills to the economy, but the number is extraordinary, given the current economic circumstances.

Even the public sector (over which you would hope Mr Brown has some semblance of authority) is doing it.

Figures obtained by the Tory MP James Clappison show that in the final three months of 2007, shortly after Mr Brown made his now infamous 'British jobs' pledge, there were 6,305,000 British public sector workers. But, by the one-year anniversary of Mr Brown's September 2007 speech, this number had slumped by 12,000. Meanwhile, the number of non-EU nationals on work permits increased by 20,000.

Union leaders and Labour MPs - with the notable exceptions of Frank Field and the impressive Jon Cruddas - don't like talking about this. The unions have been among the biggest cheerleaders for mass migration - not least because signing up migrants has boosted membership, and therefore subscriptions.

Labour backbenchers are, in many cases, still stuck in the ridiculous mindset of believing that to call for a limit on non-EU migration is somehow racist.

But, if the Lindsey dispute has taught them anything, it should be that the time has come for the unions and Labour MPs to show some spine, and stand up for those who they claim to represent. That means pressurising the Government to do what it is determined to avoid: significantly reduce work permits.

The history of the past decade has taught us we should probably not hold our collective breath.